The Masquerade Ball (A tale of Eswor Book 1)

The Pirate King

I don't know what I was running from, just that it was something not very welcoming. O turned around and all I saw was darkness. Goosebumps arose on my skin as I turned back and kept running until in front of me was a forest. I stopped running and made my way through the gloomy forest.

"Hello?" My voice echoed like it would in a cave. I suddenly came to a clearing. There was something in the middle. It looked like a body. I walked forward, not able to stop. I kneeled down next to the body and turned it over. My eyes widened and I scrambled away. The body was covered head to toe in blood and covered in wounds. The only thing that remained untouched was it's eyes. Grey eyes.

"Cole." My voice cracked and a sob escaped from my lips. Suddenly a force pulled me back away from him. "No! Stop! Cole!" I reached towards him with my hand and then everything went black.

~

I awoke from my nightmare as I heard thunder and lightning. I was covered in sweat and tears were running down my face. I tried wiping them away, but found that I couldn't. I tugged on my hands, but they were bound and I was tied against a pole. 

Thunder clapped again and I jumped. I heard footsteps above me and someone was yelling rather loudly. I could hear men shouting orders at one another. That's when I noticed I was in a cell. On a ship. In a storm. And those men were probably pirates. Alder had seduced me and handed me over to pirates. I was so going to kill him.

I sighed and leaned my head against the pole and jumped again as it thundered outside. I was only in pants, my boots and a shirt. My belt was missing, along with my dagger.

I heard footsteps coming down and the jingling of a lantern. A man that was soaking wet came over to the cell bars and sneered at me. "Looks like yer awake then?"

From what I could see from the light that the lantern provided, he was fairly large and definitely intimidated me. His sleeves were rolled up, despite being out in the cold rain, and he was wearing pants and boots. His cutlass was attached to his waist with a belt.

Cutlass.

I wasn't fond of the Cutlass, nor was I fond of the guns that pirates favoured. I wasn't fond of pirates. He spat on the ground and opened the door. I tried backing away from him, but remembered that I was stuck. "This is the mighty Captain of the Guard? She doesn't seem so mighty to me."

"Well obviously. After all, she is on a ship with her worst fear." It was Alder. He stepped forward and smiled at me. Like the large man, he was soaked and water was dripping from his hair into his face. "Hello Kav."

I didn't say anything. I glared at him with a burning anger that I hoped he understood. He betrayed me, and I wanted nothing more than to stab him multiple times with a sword.

"Well, you sure seem talkative." Alder commented. "Earl hurry up and let's bring her to the Captain's quarters. I'm sure he'll be happy to see her."

Earl came forward and untied me from the pole and grabbed my elbow shoving me out of the cell. Alder caught me before I could fall. I tried to rip myself out of his hands, but he held on tightly.

"I can't wait until I can hang you on the gallows." I spat at him.

Alder brought his mouth close to my ear and whispered, "That's not going to happen anytime soon. No one else knows who I really am, for all they know, I'm just a castle guard." He shoved me away and started walking. "We've wasted enough time already, Earl. Let's get going."